Confessions

I confess:  growing up I wanted Pa (played by Michael Landon) from Little House On the Prairie to be my dad.  Didn't everyone?  He was hardworking, tender, handsome, honorable, and well-respected.   Moreover, I imagined what it would be like to live in that "little house," in Walnut Grove, attending a one-room schoolhouse.  Looking back, it's a little silly.  But like many viewers, I found myself drawn the wholesomeness of it all.   It's this nostalgia which drew me to read Alison Arngram's new book, Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch:  How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.  It is, of course, an autobiography:  we learn of Arngram's sexual abuse as a child, and how this spurned her political activism as an adult.  These parts of the book are mildly interesting.  By comparison, what most fans of the show will look for are Arngram's "behind the scenes" stories--how the relationships developed from the Pilot episode; how Laura (played by Melissa Gilbert) and Nellie actually got along, and it was Mary (played by Melissa Anderson) who was a bit of a diva.  Readers will learn things, of course, about the show--but they'll also find themselves taking a bit of a trip down memory lane.  Arngram has a good sense of humor, and tells a good enough of a story.  But like Melissa Gilbert's Prairie Tale: A Memoir (2009), this one's for fans of the show only.